NEWS

J1 vs Omiya Ardija: Match Review

In the 2nd half, Cerezo rushed through to the victory. The offence team blasted up in 2 consecutive games and Cerezo reached to the 4th place in the league, the highest position in this season so far!

Cerezo Osaka challenged for 2 consecutive victories in the league and 3 consecutive victories in the regular games, at away match against Omiya Ardija, and in the 2nd half their offence team’s power was blasted. From the corner kick’s, both taken by Souza, Hiroshi Kiyotake and Kazuya Yamamura scored with headers, then towards end of the match when the opponent showed slowing down, Cerezo made some brilliant pass-works, and the substitute Kunimitsu Sekiguchi fed a cross to Kenyu Sugimoto who scored the 3rd. Cerezo made themselves reached to the 4th place in the league table, the highest in this season so far, after the victory against the opponent who are now in the relegation zone.

At the end, Cerezo made a fantastic victory but they had the struggling 1st half. On top of the heat as temperature at the kick-off was 30.3 °C (87 °F), Omiya kept their organized and compact defence, and though Cerezo was better for possession, they struggled without having scoring opportunities.

“Too many wasting misses” (Yoon Jung-Hwan), “Myself, and the team too, had lazy legs” (Kenyu Sugimoto), as they looked back the 1st half, “we talked through about it at half time” (Hiroshi Kiyotake), and in the 2nd half, the speed of passes became faster, Cerezo plunged in the opponent by giving them pressure from all over, then succeeded the top of defence line that Omiya kept high in the 1st half to go back down.

And, at 63rd minute, the moment of delight came at last.

It was Hiroshi Kiyotake who executed with his header with the perfect corner-kick by Souza to the near goal. He won his way over a defender and goalkeeper, and all the supporters who were making behind the away goal in solid pink, stood up. “After one goal, we got our rhythm”, as the opening goaler Kiyotake later said, after the 1st goal Cerezo played very much dominant as probably the best performance in this season. At 74th minute, Kazuya Yamamura showed off his play by his physical strength and skillful feet, it made the stand rang with the sound of admiration.

At 82nd minute, Yamamura was substituted by Kunimitsu Sekiguchi, and Sekiguchi took position at right side and Kiyotake shifted to the top-below. Then at 86th minute, Kiyotake made a breakthrough to the centre by one-two play with Yoichiro Kakitani, Kakitani hold the ball for a second and passed to Sekiguchi. Sekiguchi volleyed the ball and made a cross to Sugimoto who had volley shoot the ball to the goal, executed the 3rd goal to secure their victory.

Before this match, Cerezo had 2 consecutive victories with a large number of goals, but the manager Yoon Jung-Hwan said “especially at the moment things are going well, we must concentrate even more”, and like replying to the commander’s comment, the players said “I shouldn’t be too satisfied about today’s result, we should reset and keep challenging” (Kiyotake), “we shouldn’t be too happy yet, and aim higher” (Sugimoto). In the coming week, Cerezo will face Vissel Kobe for Levain Cup match and the league match. Cannot wait for the games which will be very exiting matches, guaranteed!